Following the selection process through 389 applications, 11 women-led deep-tech startups have entered the Inception Phase. Now they are working with InnovX and their respective corporate counterparts to refine their proposed solutions and prepare the foundations for potential co-creation pilots.
Open Call #3 brought together challenges across AI, engineering, sustainable materials, tax and international expansion, employee experience and production optimisation.
Here are the startups taking them on:
Finkele
Challenge targeted: Towards Reliable and Data-Efficient Machine Learning for Engineering Simulation
GreenMateria
Challenge targeted: Ultra-Rapid Biodegradable Polymer Materials for Controlled Environments
Inscripta
Challenge targeted: Intelligent Tax Compliance and Optimisation for International Market Entry
Konekti
Challenge targeted: AI for Production Bottleneck Detection & Workflow Optimisation
Natural Negative
Challenge targeted: AI-Assisted Sustainable Formulation Acceleration for Barrier Coatings
Neuralfinity
Challenge targeted: Towards Reliable and Data-Efficient Machine Learning for Engineering Simulation
QuickLegal
Challenge targeted: Smart Tax Strategy Design for International Business Expansion
Shelfion
Challenge targeted: Towards Reliable and Data-Efficient Machine Learning for Engineering Simulation
TemsAI
Challenge targeted: AI-Powered Onboarding and Employee Journey Assistant
Tera Mira
Challenge targeted: Ultra-Rapid Biodegradable Polymer Materials for Controlled Environments
WeekOne
Challenge targeted: AI-Powered Onboarding and Employee Journey Assistant
For more information on the winners – pleas see their profiles at the end of this article.
What’s next?
During Inception, the startups are working to turn their initial proposals into more concrete plans: understanding the corporate context, refining their solutions and defining what could realistically be tested during a pilot.
In October, seven of the 11 startups will be selected to move into the Open Horizons Piloting Phase, beginning the final round of corporate-backed co-creation pilots.
At the same time, Cohort #2 is approaching the end of its own journey, with seven startups expected to complete their pilots in November.
This brings Open Horizons close to one of the most rewarding parts of the programme: seeing ideas materialise. It is where we can see what founders have learned, how technologies have changed through real collaboration, and what happens when startups and companies dedicate time to testing, adapting and improving a solution together.
For Cohort #3, that process is just beginning. We look forward to seeing which ideas will move into piloting next.
ANNEX
Profiles of short-listed start-ups under the Open call #3 of the Open Horizons initiative
Finkele – United Kingdom
Founder: June Soh
Finkele develops climate-intelligence tools to help asset owners and managers understand and respond to flood risk. Its platform combines real-time flood alerts, ESG analytics and interactive risk mapping, using environmental and weather data to provide earlier visibility of potential flooding.
Its tools include live warnings, river-level and rainfall information, as well as flood-depth, risk and financial-loss analysis, helping organisations move from reacting to flooding to making more informed resilience and asset-management decisions.
Website: https://finkele.com
GreenMateria – Sweden
Founder: Parastou Kharazmi
GreenMateria develops high-performance bio-based materials from renewable raw materials as alternatives to fossil-based materials. Its work focuses on combining lower environmental impact with properties needed for industrial applications, including form stability and improved mechanical and thermal performance. The company is part of Sweden’s Processum biorefinery ecosystem and is working towards applications across multiple industries.
Website: https://green-materia.com/
Inscripta – Sweden
Founder: Jie Gao Jessi
Inscripta is developing a deterministic AI governance platform for environments where AI decisions need to be traceable, controlled and accountable. Rather than allowing AI to act directly, its approach uses AI to generate structured proposals that are checked against defined rules and reviewed by a human before any action is executed.
The system is designed to create an auditable record of the full decision process, from the information provided to the AI and its recommendation to human approval and the resulting action. The aim is to make AI usable in regulated and high-stakes workflows where compliance, safety and transparency are essential.
Website: https://inscripta.vercel.app/
Konekti – Netherlands
Founder: Lotte Vugs
Konekti develops process-intelligence technology that helps companies understand how work actually flows across their operations. By connecting data from different systems, its platform makes bottlenecks, delays, costs and process relationships easier to identify.
At the core of the platform is a process graph that creates a shared operational model that can be used by AI, process mining and business-intelligence tools. Konekti is particularly focused on manufacturing, supply chains and operational improvement, while allowing companies to keep their data and governance within their own infrastructure.
Website: www.getkonekti.io
Natural Negative – United Kingdom
Founders: Dr Phoebe Heseltine and Dr Kumar Krishnamoorthy
Natural Negative is a UK-based materials science company dedicated to overcoming the manufacturing barriers of bio-based materials. It was founded by biomaterials scientist Dr Phoebe Heseltine and industrial engineer Dr Kumar Krishnamoorthy to solve a problem they had repeatedly encountered in industry: bio-based materials are notoriously difficult to manufacture and have not had the benefit of the decades of manufacturing development behind fossil-based polymers.
The company developed DropForm, its proprietary software platform using AI to overcome the challenges of bio-based manufacturing. It helps companies switch away from fossil plastics by identifying the fastest, lowest-cost route to a bio-based material that can work with their existing equipment.
Website: https://www.naturalnegative.com/
Neuralfinity – Germany
Founder: Yuliia Meissner
Neuralfinity is a deep-tech AI company developing advanced AI solutions for enterprise and industrial applications. Its vision is to enable faster exploration of engineering ideas by bringing AI into complex engineering workflows.
Yuliia Meissner is co-founder and CEO of Neuralfinity, with a background in product strategy, corporate partnerships and international go-to-market. She focuses on turning advanced AI technology into practical products, building partnerships with industry and bringing innovative solutions to real-world markets.
Website: https://www.neuralfinity.com/
QuickLegal – Romania
Founder: Iulia Andritoiu Caizer
QuickLegal is an innovative platform built around automating legal and financial services for fast-growing companies that want to stay competitive. It offers an automated back office that brings legal and financial operations together in one intelligent platform.
Its three strategic pillars – debt collection automation, a virtual legal office and its newest addition, a tax intelligence layer – protect what matters most as companies scale: cash flow, legal footing and the ability to navigate compliance and cross-border tax complexity with confidence.
Website: https://quicklegal.ro/en/
Shelfion – Belgium
Founder: Wendy Ossieur
Shelfion is a Ghent-based company transforming how food manufacturers determine and manage the shelf life of their products. What started as a lab-based innovation has evolved into a complete software solution combining advanced technology with deep expertise in food microbiology.
Led by Wendy Ossieur and Katrien Begyn, alongside food microbiology expert Prof. Frank Devlieghere, PhD, Shelfion is building a data-driven shelf-life management platform designed around the real needs of the food industry. By bringing together software, science and industry expertise, Shelfion helps food manufacturers reduce food waste, accelerate product launches and make informed decisions supporting both food safety and product quality.
Website: https://www.shelfion.com
TemsAI – Netherlands
Founder: Alexandra Podsekina
After more than 20 years leading large international organisations, Alexandra Podsekina saw the same challenge repeatedly: companies have enormous knowledge, but accessing it is far from simple.
Together with her co-founder and CTO Igor Podsekin, Alexandra founded TemsAI to address this problem. TemsAI is developing an AI-powered Onboarding & Employee Journey Assistant that brings company knowledge, personalised guidance and onboarding support directly to employees when and where they need it. Its mission is to turn the knowledge of the few into the capability of everyone, helping workers reach their full potential from day one.
Website: https://tems.ai/
Tera Mira – United Kingdom
Founder: Jeanne Bégon-Lours
Tera Mira is developing a bio-based stretch fibre made from seaweed as an alternative to conventional elastane. Elastane gives garments stretch but is fossil-based, non-biodegradable and difficult to separate from textile blends at end of life, creating an obstacle to textile recycling.
Tera Mira’s fibre is being designed as a drop-in alternative that can work with existing spinning infrastructure, reducing the need for manufacturers to retool their production lines. The company aims to combine renewable feedstocks, industrial compatibility and end-of-life biodegradability in a more circular approach to stretch textiles.
Website: https://teramira.com